“People don’t understand that that the whole gaming world is not just for geeks, and assume that every person who plays video games is a geek that wears glasses,” Garcia said. “It’s a misnomer that needs to be put to rest.”

Garcia currently plays PC games and console titles, and owns both a Nintendo DS and a PSP. “It’s something that I carry with me everywhere, like some people carry their iPods. It’s the norm to me. I’ve had people send me messages like, ‘oh you play video games?’ And I’m like, ‘why are you so surprised?”

“If I could get a job… being a game tester, I would do that all day long.”

Her favourite games are “RPGs that tell stories” and she did mention Final Fantasy as her favourite!

“I like those games because they have a lot of sidequests,” Garcia said. “You can build up your character doing small things. I’m 100 hours into FFXII and I’m not even done with the game yet. I’m doing all the hunts and the sidequests - I’m probably a third into the game and my guys are at level 60. I hold my characters high so when I go through the game it’s a lot easier.”

But the big question is did she get the Zodiac Spear?

“I actually got the Zodiac Spear the first time I played it… you have to go through hell to get that spear, but I happened to get it the first time because someone told me about it. You can’t open certain boxes, but then you have to go through and fight that nasty esper at the end… I died three times before I actually beat it.”

Garcia has seen plenty of models paid to act like game fans when they’re not, but said it’s not the models’ fault. “Sex sells,” she said. “The thing that most of the guys see… the women taking pictures with an Xbox to make it look more glamorous… you can’t blame so much the models, but the companies. [The models] are being paid to be there, like at the game conventions. I know a lot of girls that shoot that kind of stuff, but it’s not done on purpose.”

“They’re trying to make it appeal to men. And I think men need more… finessing than women do. You can do woman-based advertising on a product, but I think if a woman wants to play video games, she’s going to buy it regardless of the ads,” Garcia said.

“[A woman] thinks more when she makes a purchase, versus guys have to be lured in. So if you just give them something cheezy, that’s going to be implanted in their head and they’re going to be like, ‘I have to buy Call of Duty 4.’ Women don’t need that finessing. You can give her a million-dollar advertisement, and if she doesn’t want to buy it she’s not going to buy it.”

How, then, does Garcia think that women might dissolve some of the misconceptions around females and games? “I think just playing them,” she said. “Even something as small as just doing this. I’ve shot Playboy stuff with my PSP, and people have asked if I really play video games, and I respond back. I think, just getting more involved in it, and doing more with it, and seeing where it goes.”

By the way, according to Garcia, one of Hugh Hefner’s favorite rooms at the Playboy Mansion has a broad museum of old arcade cabinets. After seeing it on her first tour, Garcia decided to spend her visit hanging out in there.

“I was in there probably the whole time I was at the house, because I wanted something to do,” she said. “I almost finished the whole Donkey Kong while I was there.”

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core, the Playstation Portable prequel to Final Fantasy VII, will be released across all PAL territories on June 20, 2008. PAL players will finally be able to experience the story of Zack discovering the reason behind Genesis’s disappearance as he struggles to make SOLDIER 1st class. Sephiroth and Cloud also makes a few appearances in the game and play a key part in the storyline.

John Yamamoto comments that:
“Crisis Core is one of the most anticipated FINAL FANTASY releases of all times. Pushing the boundaries of the PSP hardware, it offers a truly fantastic gameplay experience to not only existing fans, but new ones as well.”

Keep checking back here for more information reguarding Crisis Core.

Nintendo’s press release:
“My Life as a King takes a legendary franchise and launches it into the realm of simulation gaming. Players are challenged to rebuild a kingdom, leading its young king on a path of discovery through an adventure bristling with mystery and intrigue.”

Nintendo also announced that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King will be available for European gamers by May 20, 2008 for 1,500 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10) from the WiiWare service.

So far the title has received impressive reviews with game lasting roughly 10-15 hours.

Looking at the graph you can see a blantant increase in all individual items. Hopeful this increase will continue far into the future of Series’ life span.

I hope to post another one of these up in three months time so check back then to see if any improvement has been made.

And one more thing; Thank you to all those whom have visited, helped and commented on Final Fantasy Series. Keep the good work up!

Positives:
1. Sleek and fitting combat system for the PSP.

2. Zack’s story told, which is actually one of the most vivid one to remember.

3. Best graphics on PSP so far I think with awsome pre-rendered cutscenes.

4. It’s yet another VII chapter.

5. Long lasting for a PSP game.

Negatives:
1. DMW leveling up, although not random, it is not stable… cause when i finished on normal, i was level 34, and now after restarting on hard im nearly at the end of the game again and only gained 4 more levels.

2. It doesn’t quite show much of clouds and zack’s friendship only until the vary last chapters.

3. It might be long lasting for a psp game, but it feels short for an ff game, about 17-20 hours to finish the main story line.

4. Side missions are very boring.

5. It lacks some of the freedom a final fantasy game has, in terms of enviroments and navigation.

OVERALL SCORE: 93%

I praise it as my best PSP game along with Ace Combat X, and maybe MGS portable ops.

FINAL FANTASY XIII PSP Wallpaper 01

FINAL FANTASY XIII PSP Wallpaper 02

FINAL FANTASY XIII PSP Wallpaper 03

FINAL FANTASY versus XIII PSP Wallpaper 07

FINAL FANTASY versus XIII PSP Wallpaper 08

FINAL FANTASY versus XIII PSP Wallpaper 09

FINAL FANTASY versus XIII PSP Wallpaper 10

FINAL FANTASY versus XIII PSP Wallpaper 11

Positives:
1. The animation is great. Nice to see the FFVII characters rendered in a “realistic” style - although Red XIII wasn’t really mentioned.

2. As a fan of Final Fantasy VII, it was good to see the return of the favourite characters again in a new story.

3. The fight scenes were pretty neat, in terms of action.

Negatives:
1. I didn’t like the Asian style of fight sequences done mostly in the air. Please keep them mostly on the floor next time.

2. Disappointing story and poorer villains. The appearance of Sephiroth near the end feels cheap and forced.

3: Most of the male characters are ultra-effeminate, especially the villains. They seriously look gender confused. All you would have to do to make them women, would be to draw breasts on them.

OVERALL SCORE: 65%

“My feelings are that if a remake were to work well then all the core members of the original team must be reassembled, all the artists and designers.

The problem is that, although all of us have an idea of what a remake should be and how to do it, organising such a thing right now is logistically very difficult. All the different members are now involved in very new, very large projects like Final Fantasy 13 and those projects are going to take a while.

Maybe, when all those games are finished then we can look at doing something like that.

Of course, that said we came up with the idea for Crisis Core in just two days. It was a case of ‘this is what we want to do, so let’s do it’. So, you can definitely expect the probability of something spontaneous happening at some point, but it’s hard to predict.”

A rare possibility therefore awaits VII , but this remake if it does happen is unlikely to appear before XIII is released. We can keep on dreaming…

How many can you do? If you break 25 you get a link to a free secret wallpaper!